


Fading

by Scarletwolf



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, Hydra, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nico's doctor is annoying, Solangelo is minor also, VERY MINOR mention btw, mentions of the Wars, minor mention of PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-22 00:52:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7411984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarletwolf/pseuds/Scarletwolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was fading again. </p>
<p>Pale hands shook as they faded in and out like a badly CGI’d ghost. Nico clenched them into fists and took a deep breath. A Hydra had attacked an apartment building. It had spewed flames into the complex, burning it to the ground. Nico had been nearby and he had, in a haste, shadow traveled inside the burning building to save any stragglers. </p>
<p>(Oneshot)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fading

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a solo for my Nico RP account. I figured I'd put it here for fun as well. 
> 
> Enjoy~ 
> 
> (This work is unbeta'd)

He was fading again. 

Pale hands shook as they faded in and out like a badly CGI’d ghost. Nico clenched them into fists and took a deep breath. A Hydra had attacked an apartment building. It had spewed flames into the complex, burning it to the ground. Nico had been nearby and he had, in a haste, shadow traveled inside the burning building to save any stragglers. 

Back to the present, he looked to his right to a little boy that was sobbing over his motionless mother’s body. 

While the flames licked sharply against his skin, Nico had heard the wracking sob of a small child. He leapt over the fallen beams of the building toward the noise. It was a small boy, desperately clutching the arm of a woman trapped under a flaming support beam. The boy, Nico concluded, was a demi-god judging by how the metal support beam was groaning loudly and moving an inch at a time. The small hand that wasn’t clutching the woman’s arm was thrust toward the beam. That explained why the Hydra was attacking this apartment building. Nico didn’t have time to both defeat the Hydra and save the boy so he ran forward and grabbed the boy, getting ready to shadow travel as far away from the monster as he could. 

“No!” The boy shrieked when Nico tried to pull him away from the woman. “Mama! We can’t leave mama!” 

Nico glanced at the body of the woman. He couldn’t see her soul anymore; she was dead. “We can’t take her.” Nico told the boy. He was still recovering from shadow traveling the Athena Parthenos across the globe and the dead lady would just be extra weight. 

 

The boy didn’t seem to think so as he struggled in Nico’s grasp and screamed “NO! NO! NO NO NO! MAMA! MAAAMMAAA!” 

“Oh, for the love of—“ One of the Hydra’s large, scaly head burst through the crumbling walls. It stared at Nico and the boy with dangerous slitted yellow eyes. A forked tongue poked out as if it was saying ‘hey, I’m about to eat you now’. Not knowing what else to do, Nico dove forward and grabbed the dead woman’s arm and dragged her and the boy to a corner that (thankfully) had shadows still. Gathering all of his power, he pulled them both into the shadows, effectively disappearing from the burning building and hungry dragon. 

That’s where they were now. The three of them had emerged in the shadow of a tree somewhere near Camp Half-blood. Nico had collapsed against the tree, sliding down when his legs gave out under him. He looked at his fading hands with a look of resignation before closing them into fists and looking over to where the little boy was crying over his dead mother’s body. 

Nico could feel the woman down in the Underworld, lining up and waiting to be judged. Somehow, he didn’t think that would calm the crying boy. With a groan of pain, Nico slid over to the boy. 

“Hey…” He tried to look as reassuring as possible. “What’s… What’s your name?” 

The little boy gave a sniff as he looked up at Nico, clearly startled at being addressed. “T-T-Tommy….” He hiccupped out. Then, he let out a seriously startling wail and jumped into Nico’s surprised arms. Not sure what else to do, Nico held the boy and let him cry. Flashes of his own pain at his sister’s death passed through his mind. 

It was in this position that the other campers had found Nico and Tommy; the boy crying into Nico’s shirt and Nico muttering calming words in Italian into Tommy’s hair. Will had lead the group who found them and he had been first to reach Nico and Tommy. Not saying a word, the son of Apollo knelt by the two and carefully pried Tommy away from Nico, handing him off to a waiting Conner Stoll- who took Tommy in his arms and carried him off to camp. Will stayed kneeling next to Nico and carefully took his hands into his own. He examined them with a careful eye. 

“Well, you’re not going to die.” He said finally. Nico snorted. 

“Of course not. I’ve had worse.” Will didn’t find that reassuring if the small tut was any indication. 

“I told you not to shadow travel for a while.” 

“They were being attacked by a Hydra, Will.” 

“But you still could ha—“

“No, I couldn’t have. You know this.” Nico snapped. His eyes moved to the body of the boy’s mother, still laying in the grass. “If I didn’t shadow travel, there could have been two dead bodies.” He whispered. Will followed Nico’s gaze to the body and sighed. 

“Yeah. I… Let the Apollo cabin handle telling the boy, okay? And then we’ll give her a proper funeral.” The blond promised. Nico could only nod. Despite being the son of Hades, and thus constantly being surrounded by death, Nico couldn’t… /stand/ watching people die. He’d already seen so many people die from the wars. He didn’t want to see any more. 

After a little maneuvering, Will pulled Nico up into his arms and stood. 

“No complaining.” Will said sternly when Nico opened his mouth to protest that he could walk. “Doctor’s orders.” 

Nico narrowed his eyes. “My doctor is annoying.” Will just laughed before making his way toward the infirmary. 

“Not as annoying as the patient, I assure you.” He teased and Nico bit back a grin. Will continued, “Maybe that’s why they’re so perfect together.” And that had Nico burying his reddening face into Will’s shoulder. 

“Shut up.” 

Will grinned. “Make me.” 

Nico glared and promptly went boneless, rolling out of Will’s grasp. The blond yelped in surprise and then proceeded to yell at Nico who had taken off running. He was still weak from shadow traveling and Will would catch up right away, he knew, but that didn’t deter the smile on his face as he dodged away from Will’s grabbing hands. 

Later that night at the camp fire, they had a funeral for the dead woman. Tommy sat in the front row, holding Lacy from Aphrodite’s cabin’s hand and sniffling as Nico recited the funeral words, asking in ancient Greek, for his father to help the woman have a safe passage into the Underworld. Along side the ashes of the campfire, rose a sparkling flaming hammer over Tommy’s head. He had been claimed by the God Hephaestus. 

It was bittersweet, Nico thought as the funeral chants ended, that another demigod had lost a mortal parent shortly before their godly one claimed them. It was almost like they had to choose, one or the other. Nico caught Will’s eyes. The boy looked so young and old at the same time; just like every other Demigod who had fought in the Wars. Nico knew his own eyes reflected the same hardness. They all had to grow up way too fast and as he looked over to Tommy, he knew there was another boy who would one day soon, have the same eyes as every other demigod here.


End file.
